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S02E58: Rapidly Rewatching Mando, S2E4
27 Plays6 days ago
It's finally time for the live action debut of Ahsoka... oh wait, what's THIS episode doing in there? Join Ben, Phil, and Bob as we take a slight detour back to Navarro to help some old friends take care of business, in a "forgotten" episode directed by Apollo Creed himself.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast Series
00:00:00
Speaker
It's a forgotten episode of Bando and we're going to talk about it real quick. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome back to Short for a Stormtrooper, a 15-minute Star Wars podcast where we are in the middle of our watch slash a rewatch of The Mandalorian before The Mandalorian and Grogu premieres on May 22nd. We do have to talk, guys, about like what we're going to do about that day, May 22nd, because it would be really fun if we could get together like we said. Of course, there's a whole bunch of people who We might be having a party.
Action and Mystery in Chapter 12
00:00:39
Speaker
But anyway, we're here to we're here to talk about Chapter 12, The Siege, which was the fourth episode of Season 2, written by Jon Favreau and directed by none other than Carl Weathers himself.
00:00:54
Speaker
making his Star Wars directorial debut. Mando swings back to Navarro for ship repairs and gets roped into one more mission with Greef Karga and Cara Dune taking down an old Imperial base.
00:01:07
Speaker
It's a fun, action-packed reunion episode that feels like a heist, and it drops some genuinely chilling hints about what the Empire has been up to with Grogu's blood.
Personal Reactions to the Episode
00:01:19
Speaker
Now, Ben Dyer, Phil Salmo, I am going to start off actually by talking about my reaction to watching this again, which is I had forgotten this episode existed.
00:01:30
Speaker
ah I have been, since I moved to Chicago, I've been doing my running on the treadmill down in the fitness center in the mornings. And I've been bringing down my iPad and watching episodes of Mandalorian while I run.
00:01:45
Speaker
I went into this fully expecting it to be the next episode. And I was surprised that it wasn't that episode. It was this episode. But then remembered that I thought that this was a fun, serviceable, enjoyable,
00:02:02
Speaker
episode uh i enjoyed it but ben let's start with you this time what's your reaction to chapter 12 the siege i really enjoyed it i mean there's a lot of good stuff happening in this episode there's a lot of development i i'm like you i forgot this was here yeah If you said to me, do you remember when they blew up that base and we had the kind of, you know, revelations about the, you know, I'd been like, oh yeah, I remember that, but I couldn't have told you where it was. And so like, you i was expecting this one to be the one where we go and we're going to go meet a supertano because what else is he
Ship Repairs and Character Development
00:02:36
Speaker
going to do? He's got a ready to go ship. He could get there, right? Right. He could get there. Well, no, look, he's got to come back and and essentially redo all that repair work that that one Mon Calamari did. You know, yeah, I'm sure it's in there. It's this was not a first class repair job. So, yeah, he's he's got to get back to his friends. He's got to go somewhere where his credit's good. And and off we go. Right. um Things that I thought were fun, interesting, surprising. um
00:03:05
Speaker
I enjoy seeing Cara Dune back. I was surprised to see ah Horatio Sanz's myth role from the very first episode. That was a lot of fun. ah And of course, Giancarlo Esposito is...
00:03:20
Speaker
you know, every time he is on screen, you're just like, Ooh, he's going to be an evil bad guy. So loved all of that stuff. And yeah, the kind of the highest aspect, the action, I think this was another kind of action packed episode. And I was a little surprised to see that back to back with another action packed episode. So all that's wonderful.
Does the Episode Advance the Plot?
00:03:40
Speaker
And of course, glad to see Carl Weathers in the director's seat. I thought it was great that we could we could, you know, see what he wanted to do in that, in that role. I don't know. Wasn't he, ah wasn't he helping um running little acting workshops for people back in LA at one point? Yeah. Back in the day. Good deep cut, Ben. Phil, what was your reaction to this episode?
00:04:04
Speaker
You know, Bob, you're kind of opening for, it it sort of, sort of kind of encapsulates my feeling on it. And Ben, you know, in some ways with Ben as well, but like, It was an enjoyable episode, but for me, kind of ultimately a forgettable episode. Like, it just was like, it was good, but it it didn't feel like it was in the upper pantheon of Mandalorian episodes that we've seen thus far, for me. So, yeah you know, it has some really cool moments. I think, you know, and we talked on the last episode about fan service. This, in some ways, feels a little bit like a fan service filler episode. Because, you know, I love to see Grief Karga and, you know, Cara Dune back. And Navarro, old friends. Like, that's all cool. But it just feels like, oh, we're going back just to kind of bring them in for this season.
00:04:51
Speaker
And, yeah, overall, like, it was... It was a good episode, action-packed. I liked sort of the heist elements that you mentioned, Bob, about them going to that station and and destroying it. That was great.
00:05:04
Speaker
I really loved, i'm sorry, I'm forgetting the name of the character was voiced by Horatio Sanz. I know you just said it, Ben. Myth-roll. Myth-roll. rubble mi row but he had some he had some great comedic relief and moments. i thought that was really fun.
00:05:15
Speaker
But overall, yes, overall good, but something about it just sort of, I would say, didn't quite resonate in the way that would say the previous episode did. Yeah, yeah. I can see that. And, you know, what's interesting is, again, I remember when this episode came out and there were some people complaining about it that it didn't really advance the plot of the show.
00:05:38
Speaker
And... In my opinion, when I hear somebody, especially on the internet, say it doesn't advance the plot or it's bad writing or it's bad directing, my first thought is you don't know what the heck you're talking about.
00:05:56
Speaker
yeah like you know did They say that to think you know to pretend like they sound smart and they really have no idea what they're talking about. Phil, I know you do know what it's talking about in terms of good directing and good writing. And I agree with
Grogu's Blood and Future Plot Setups
00:06:10
Speaker
that.
00:06:10
Speaker
I think it does feel a little bit like a filler episode, but then I think as the rest of the season progresses, you find out, no, it's actually, it is setting up some stuff that is going to happen later.
00:06:22
Speaker
Okay, good. Yeah. Yeah, and is important. And as the as the Claude generated summary said, we do find some interesting stuff about what it is that they're looking for from Grogu, why they want Grogu so much.
00:06:38
Speaker
They are looking for his blood ah to be inserted into a test subjects. They are talking about the M count. which we don't know for sure exactly what that is, but I think we pretty well know that the M count is talking about the number of midichlorians in his blood. Phil, do you have any idea what a midichlorian is?
00:07:02
Speaker
I have no idea. Yeah, that's a good thing. um Back in episode one for some reason, uncle George decided that he needed to have a scientific explanation for why some people are strong in the force and other people's people aren't.
00:07:21
Speaker
And that it's because of these midi-chlorians, which are little symbiotic microscopic life forms that live in your blood. And that's what basically conducts the force. And if you have a lot of midi-chlorians, then you are strong in the force.
00:07:38
Speaker
One of the things I really didn't like about the prequels. There's also. it wasn't just you. There were a lot of people. I count myself. Did not like this. And there were a lot.
00:07:50
Speaker
There were some stories that George Lucas's original plot for episode seven, eight and nine that Disney ultimately rejected when they bought the franchise and that pissed off George. And that's why George has been distant. Um,
00:08:06
Speaker
that it was gonna dive into actually like the world of the midichlorians, like this microscopic world and like, oh my, can
Midichlorians and Sequel Themes
00:08:15
Speaker
you imagine? like Like people didn't like the prequels when they came out, now people do, like imagine what that would have been like. But anyway. Yeah, hey I feel like that one's one that ah the third Ant-Man movie,
00:08:30
Speaker
I'm still recovering from that. And I don't think I've read something like that in my Star Wars. You know what i'm saying? Yeah, Quantamania, right? right Right. Another interesting thing, though. So, yeah, so we're finding out that they're doing some sort of cloning.
00:08:45
Speaker
know, I think we kind of figured out what's going on, but they're doing some sort of cloning. It does seem that this is setting up the sequels. It's setting up like the Snoke because we see some creatures in the vats, the cloning vats that look like Supreme Leader Snoke when you get to episode seven. And then we find out, of course, in episode nine that they're trying to clone the Emperor and blah, blah, blah. And, you know, and then everything gets a little bit completely crazy. But it does seem like they're maybe trying to retcon some of that and fix some stuff with that.
00:09:22
Speaker
You know, God bless you for like trying to, but if they spend the next 20 years of Star Wars content trying to tell us how exactly Palpatine returned, I'm to be like, no, that's come on. That's a waste of opportunity.
Easter Eggs and Dark Troopers
00:09:35
Speaker
Yeah. You shot your opportunity just by saying somehow Palpatine returned, but this is not a, episode nine trash uh we we did that when we did episode nine we we trashed it plenty and i yeah i did in particular about the palpitan thing i did not like that at all not to get us off track but yeah yeah yeah okay so let's return there's one other really deep cut easter egg with this that i absolutely loved which is the dark troopers that we see at the very end um
00:10:06
Speaker
The Dark Troopers came from a video game called Dark Forces that was basically, Phil, this this is just incredible story, right?
00:10:17
Speaker
Dark Forces came after came out right after doom kind of revolutionized computer gaming in terms of like turning it from 2D into 3D gaming. And Dark Forces was essentially Doom set in in the Star Wars universe. and It was interesting because in the very first mission, you are you're playing a part of a character named Kyle Katarn, and you are the spy that steals the plans to the Death Star in the first episode, which is super cool and was canon until, of course, that all got thrown out when Rogue One came out and Andor came out. And thank goodness it did, because those are the pinnacle of Star Wars storytelling. But at the end of Dark Forces, you are fighting these dark troopers. And so it was so fun to actually see them come into live action here. And it's another episode that we were taught or another example, like we were talking about a couple podcasts ago of them just kind of picking and choosing what aspects of the extended universe work and don't work and not being beholden to that, but taking what is good with that. So I like that a lot
00:11:28
Speaker
I was super excited to see them too. Yeah, no, I was, I was, I played that game back in the day. i want to say this is like 1993 or four maybe. And, ah you know, I'm gonna date myself here, but yeah, like these are, these are the years when you're playing the most video games for me. And it was just amazing because,
00:11:49
Speaker
as you're going through that game, you know, the the mythology around these terrifying new weapons that the Emperor, that the Empire has got is is just amplifying. And so then, of course, by the time you see that in this episode, you're just like, oh, no.
00:12:02
Speaker
Oh, no. these guys are screwed, right? Like there's, you don't mess with these things and they've got a bunch of them. They don't have like one or two or whatever, right? Like, yeah what is this all going to turn into? So yeah really, really fun foreshadowing and a great Easter egg. And if, look, if you don't know about all that, you just kind of know that like Moff Gideon's there and he's, he's looking bad, but he's kind of got his eye on some new technical thing. And with the empire, that's never good.
00:12:28
Speaker
So. Yeah. You know let me tell you a funny Dark Forces story is they released that first episode as a demo or the first chapter, the first mission as a demo for free. ah I think it was before the World Wide Web was the thing. But, you know, you could get it on like rec.arts.starwars or something like that.
00:12:50
Speaker
And you could download it. It was 25 megs. for this file and we downloaded it in St. Charles. in and We weren't even in Accenture yet. It was still Anderson Consulting. And we downloaded it We set it up overnight.
00:13:05
Speaker
We set it up at five o'clock to start this 25 meg download and we got to work the next morning and it was just finishing. That's how long it took to download 25 megs.
00:13:17
Speaker
Not 25 gigs, 25 megs. And now you can download that like this. yeah Although I will add this note too. There is a fan remake of Dark Forces that uses all up updated engines and graphics and all that stuff. And it looks it looks just beautiful. So if you so great if you're like me and you have a lot of nostalgic connection to that, you might go check it out.
Cara Dune's Alderaan Origin
00:13:39
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. One thing that happens in this episode that I really like that I don't think that they... played on earlier when we saw Cara Dune, who, again, I really, really like that character. And I hope that they bring her back and that, you know, they've kind of fixed their relationship with ah Gina Carano. So I hope that they bring her back.
00:13:59
Speaker
But the the fact that she was from Alderaan, I don't know if they even mentioned that before. I was going actually ask, I feel like maybe there was one reference to her, maybe at the very end of last season when they were in the,
00:14:14
Speaker
the tavern when they, when they get, um, surrounded by moth Gideon troops. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm misremembering that, but I felt like when I heard it, I thought I had heard it before, but it actually brings me a moment that I wanted to ask you guys. And I figured it might be a fan service thing that i just don't know. Cause I don't have that context, but the, the, he drops the guy who's carried in talking with drops a badge on the table next to her is what is that? What is that badge?
00:14:41
Speaker
That is basically the star, think Western sheriff wearing a star. That is the badge that you would wear if you were a new Republic Marshal.
00:14:54
Speaker
And i am saying that from watching the next couple episodes of The Mandalorian, not from anything in the past. But it's not too big a spoiler to say that that's what he was doing. He was basically offering her a job.
Cliffhanger Ending and Finale Tease
00:15:08
Speaker
You know, i just have to say, I feel like it sets up the, you know, it really leaves us on a cliffhanger in some ways the end of the episode um where they say the device has been planted on Mando's ship. And we're like, oh, no, they've, you know, they are, they're in for some trouble.
00:15:27
Speaker
And... I'm sure we will see in the coming episodes what happens with that. So looking forward to it. I think we may. I will tell you as we wrap up here, we are heading into some pretty, a pretty great arc as the season comes to an end.
00:15:44
Speaker
And I am looking forward to talking about it, but we will start talking about that again next week. So until then, Phil and Ben, thanks for being here as always. And listeners, we are so glad that you are continuing to tune in.
00:15:58
Speaker
Please continue to tell your friends and like us. And if you would write us a review, even just like write just a couple of words, you wouldn't believe how much that helps the insane computer overlords that rule what people see on the internet called the algorithm. So I would really appreciate it if you do that.
00:16:17
Speaker
Until next time, Keep watching Mando. Keep watching Star Wars. Exciting times coming up. May the Force be with you. We'll see you soon.
00:16:27
Speaker
Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you little short for us?